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Single Idea 5133
[filed under theme 24. Political Theory / A. Basis of a State / 1. A People / b. The natural life
]
Full Idea
Man is by nature a social being.
Gist of Idea
Man is by nature a social being
Source
Aristotle (Nicomachean Ethics [c.334 BCE], 1097b10)
Book Ref
Aristotle: 'Ethics (Nicomachean)', ed/tr. ThomsonJ A K/TredennickH [Penguin 1976], p.74
A Reaction
A famous idea traditionally translated (e.g. by Irwin) as "man is a political animal", but Thomson's translation seems better. Aristotle presumably means that man lives in a 'polis'. This is the natural function that gives the moral virtues.Cf Idea 5265.
Related Ideas
Idea 5265
Even more than a social being, man is a pairing and family being [Aristotle]
Idea 21435
Man is both social, and unsociable [Kant]
The
24 ideas
with the same theme
[quality of human life in a state of nature]:
19889
|
People need society because the individual has too many needs
[Plato]
|
5133
|
Man is by nature a social being
[Aristotle]
|
20842
|
Rational animals begin uncorrupted, but externals and companions are bad influences
[Chrysippus, by Diog. Laertius]
|
23346
|
A person is as naturally a part of a city as a foot is part of the body
[Epictetus]
|
19764
|
Hobbes attributed to savages the passions which arise in a law-bound society
[Hobbes, by Rousseau]
|
2367
|
In time of war the life of man is solitary, poor, nasty, brutish and short
[Hobbes]
|
19882
|
We are not created for solitude, but are driven into society by our needs
[Locke]
|
19906
|
All countries are in a mutual state of nature
[Locke]
|
19961
|
Primitive people would be too vulnerable and timid to attack anyone, so peace would reign
[Montesquieu]
|
19962
|
Men do not desire to subjugate one another; domination is a complex and advanced idea
[Montesquieu]
|
19755
|
Most human ills are self-inflicted; the simple, solitary, regular natural life is good
[Rousseau]
|
19762
|
Is language a pre-requisite for society, or might it emerge afterwards?
[Rousseau]
|
19763
|
I doubt whether a savage person ever complains of life, or considers suicide
[Rousseau]
|
19765
|
Savages avoid evil because they are calm, and never think of it (not because they know goodness)
[Rousseau]
|
19771
|
Savage men quietly pursue desires, without the havoc of modern frenzied imagination
[Rousseau]
|
19778
|
Leisure led to envy, inequality, vice and revenge, which we now see in savages
[Rousseau]
|
19779
|
Primitive man was very gentle
[Rousseau]
|
19751
|
Our two starting principles are concern for self-interest, and compassion for others
[Rousseau]
|
19791
|
Natural mankind is too fragmented for states of peace, or of war and enmity
[Rousseau]
|
21075
|
The state of nature always involves the threat of war
[Kant]
|
23275
|
The state of nature is one of untamed brutality
[Hegel]
|
22673
|
Wherever there is a small community, the association of the people is natural
[Tocqueville]
|
23844
|
The most important human need is to have multiple roots
[Weil]
|
20489
|
Human beings can never really flourish in a long-term state of nature
[Wolff,J]
|